How about a mini ipad in your tankbag map pocket?

[JReazor]

And the tablet knows where you are, and can route how, without a data conenction?

I am but an egg.

Lots of 'em have GPS hardware built in so, the same way a GPS does.

[ApeDel]

Couldn't you use an Android tablet and wifi hotspot from your phone if thats your flavor?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[dan88z]

Couldn't you use an Android tablet and wifi hotspot from your phone if thats your flavor?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

You could definitely do that. The one I have has the GPS chip built in. No connection needed. Plug in a route or just turn it on and it follows you on the map just like a dedicated GPS.

[slayman]

My Droid II overheats in the map pocket in +80 temps and direct sun. I don't use it on the bike except for tunes, sometimes.

[bomber]

Lots of 'em have GPS hardware built in so, the same way a GPS does.

By receiving radio signals from the mothership, er, satellites?

[JReazor]

By receiving radio signals from the mothership, er, satellites?

Yes.

[Croak]

And the tablet knows where you are, and can route how, without a data conenction?

I am but an egg.

The same way a stand-alone GPS does it.  It listens to radio signals from 3+ satellites, signals that essentially say "I am Sat X and the time here is Y:".  

It then compares the time signals between all the sats it can "see", does a little math factoring in the speed of light delays from the various sats, and determines your latitude, longitude and elevation from that.  The more GPS sats it can "see", the more accurate the determination.  That's all the "data connection" a GPS needs to know where it is at, a simple radio signal.
 
Now, displaying that in a useful format is another matter, most people aren't going to know what "49.2505° N, 123.1119° W" means just by looking at it.  They want/need it displayed on a map.

Stand-alone GPS units have the maps built-in, they just plot the numbers from their internal calculations on the display in map format for the user, along with other useful data derived from those calculations like speed and heading.

Where cell-phones and tablets generally differ from dedicated GPS devices is that to save money, storage space and to sell bandwidth, they tend to come with something like Google Maps or iMaps or whatever, which "streams" the map data over the data connection "as-needed", rather than storing the whole region/country/world on the device.

This was especially true in the early days of GPS-enabled phones when internal storage was at a high premium.   Long story short, they don't need a data connection to figure out where they are, but they do need data to download the maps so they can SHOW you where you are.

But these days you can buy stand-alone mapping software from several parties, including Garmin and TomTom and install it on your device, and this stand-alone software doesn't need to stream the map data, it acts just like a dedicated GPS device.  

On top of that, you can have Google Maps "cache" a large region and/or your entire planned route corridor on the device, so it downloads it once and is done, unless you go outside the region you specified or outside the route corridor.  

[miles]

On top of that, you can have Google Maps "cache" a large region and/or your entire planned route corridor on the device, so it downloads it once and is done, unless you go outside the region you specified or outside the route corridor.  

That option doesn't work as well as one might hope.

[bomber]

Yes.

Thank you sir (and Croak) . . . .I wasn't aware of this . . .

[dan88z]

That option doesn't work as well as one might hope.

True. I was all excited about downloading offline Google maps, then found out you can only do about 6 regions, and the regions are not real big. So you'd need a data connection at some point and would have to overwrite what you stored. That's why I got the NavFree app, you can download each state individually. Each map is between 40-80mb. I downloaded pretty much the entire US east of the Mississippi for now.

[miles]

I've been very happy with Navfree.  It works fantastically well.  I only wish there were some way to pre-generate routes...

[Cablebandit]

There is.....dedicated GPS.  



They do all sorts of crazy ass cool stuff.  That said, most people just use the most rudimentary of functions.

[TuffguyF4i]

I don't commute on my sportbikes, i only sport-tour and sometimes just sport.  

Because of this, when i head out, i'm usually going somewhere in the middle of no where.  Most of the time there is no cell service...i believe apple products (like my iphone4S) don't have working GPS features where there is no data or cell.  Something to consider.  

What about loading your route and getting the GPS to follow that route all day?  How do you do that?

Plus, how do you manipulate the touchscreen in the dark, while wearing gloves, in a rain storm?  

When it comes to bike navigation, purpose built electronics are worth the money.  They work.

[DrD]

True. I was all excited about downloading offline Google maps, then found out you can only do about 6 regions, and the regions are not real big. So you'd need a data connection at some point and would have to overwrite what you stored. That's why I got the NavFree app, you can download each state individually. Each map is between 40-80mb. I downloaded pretty much the entire US east of the Mississippi for now.

Garmin has an app that lets you download large regions.  On my iPhone 5 I have North America; that and the app takes 1.8 GB.  I live in VA and recently took a trip to Portland, OR.  Without reconnecting the app, or worrying about cell coverage, or WiFi coverage, I had all the info I needed for navigation.  It wasn't free, but a lot cheaper than buying a dedicated sat nav receiver.

I don't use the sat nav to guide me turn by turn, only to update me on my route.  So I don't need to see it constantly which makes the setup a lot easier.

[miles]

There is.....dedicated GPS.  



They do all sorts of crazy ass cool stuff.  That said, most people just use the most rudimentary of functions.

They don't make or receive calls, unfortunately.  A critical failing, in my opinion.  

I want one device to do it all, and the phone does a better job of it than a dedicated GPS can.

[miles]

Garmin has an app that lets you download large regions.  On my iPhone 5 I have North America; that and the app takes 1.8 GB.  I live in VA and recently took a trip to Portland, OR.  Without reconnecting the app, or worrying about cell coverage, or WiFi coverage, I had all the info I needed for navigation.  It wasn't free, but a lot cheaper than buying a dedicated sat nav receiver.

I don't use the sat nav to guide me turn by turn, only to update me on my route.  So I don't need to see it constantly which makes the setup a lot easier.

Unfortunately the Garmin app isn't yet available for the Android OS.  

[bubba zanetti]

I bought an IPad Mini to replace my IPad1 that has done great service for many years. I looked hard at the Nexus 7 tablet, which is a very good device, but I have waaay too much tied up in Apps and Itunes/Movies so the price point difference was irrelevant to me. Don't have it yet as there is a two week wait due to backorder,  but looking forward to the utility of a smaller tablet on my travels. If was all about price I likely would have gone with the Nexus.

[DrD]

Unfortunately the Garmin app isn't yet available for the Android OS.  

Wow, that is surprising.  Can't believe they will delay too long on that.

[miles]

Wow, that is surprising.  Can't believe they will delay too long on that.

They already have.  It's been available for two years now for the iOS and not the Android.  

What is most odd about that is that Garmin actually made and Android phone for a while.

[ManWorkingHere]

I used to use my iPhone as a gps/music device in my tank bag.. it kept overheating.

I don't do that any more.

I used an iPad in/on my tank bag during a May weekend and it overheated also.  I would consider an iPad Mini would also overheat if kept in the clear plastic of a tank bag.